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GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Case I
PANDIT TO AFAUZI
The case is based on
an actual incident which took place in an Army unit operationally deployed in a
field area just a few months before the 1971 showdown with Pakistan India and
Pakistan
One Ram Bali Mishra
(RBM) was a raw and green jawan of about 20 years of age and two years' service
and naturally had not seen a war. He was relatively tall, well built with fair
complexion. He had pleasant manners, turned himself out well and spoke well. He
was a complete teetotaler, non-smoker, and a vegetarian. He was well educated
and well versed in religious affairs, particularly, of the
religion to which most of the unit belonged. In the
absence of the religious teacher of the unit, he held religious institute
(dharamsthal) and gave religious discourses at the dharamsthal to all officers,
junior commissioned officers JCOs), non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and
jawans. During the pre-war days, he was performing the duties of a Sahayak
(assistant, formerly known as orderly) to Gun Position
Officer (GPO), a young officer, of the rank of a Second Lieutenant with one
year of service.
RBM's charter of duties included:
(a) attending all the
training activities of his trade (telephone operator) which were being
organized in the sub-unit;
(b) making arrangements to get the food from the
officers' mess and water from the tube- well for the office; and
(c) attending the telephone and noting down all the
messages for the office.
By virtue of the
nature and timings of these duties, RBM was excused physical training in the
morning and games in the evening which all other jawans of the sub-unit
attended. He was generally happy with these duties and working with the officer: After a
short span of a week or so, the officer noticed some changes in the behavior of
RBM. He also looked pale and worried. He was less talkative, less
lively and his interaction with other jawans decreased. He started
keeping aloof except where his duties warranted interaction with others.
The officer tried to find the reasons from RBM but nothing emerged except a shy
and coy smile and “aisi to koi baat Nai, Sahib".
The officer tried to probe further to find out if some guilt conscience was
bothering him because of some bad habit which young man of his age is likely
to fall prey to, in the absence, of even visual contact of civil life and
members of the opposite sex.
This was denied
vehemently. After another week or so, it was
noticed that RBM had developed constipation, ate very
little, felt tired after walking even a few hundred yards and had become weak.
He was interviewed by the officer but nothing emerged once again. He was sent to
the Regimental Medical Officer (RMO). The RMO inspected him and gave some medicines. On
being contacted by the
officer, the RMO mentioned that there was nothing wrong medically with RBM
except that he was scared of the prospects of war. He even disclosed that after
having been medically examined, RBM even started giving a discourse to the RMO
on the bad effects of a war on environment, economy, costs, etc. He stated that
people would be loaded with sufferings; killed, injured, maimed, and would
become homeless. The children would become orphans, women widowed, and the
humanity would suffer. He vehemently advised the RMO to make all attempts to stop
the war and if he could, at least oppose it. After a brief conversation, the
RMO was convinced that all the symptoms pointed to a fear psychosis of war. He
gave some medicines to RBM and sent him to the sub-unit.
The RMO told the GPO
that because of the worry about the war, RBM had developed problems of
digestion and hence, ate less, became inactive and felt tired quickly. He had
earlier been feeling shy of expressing his apprehensions about the war to
others, lest they consider him a coward. The GPO gave a thought to the whole
problem and interviewed RBM, advising him to attend· all
physical activities, including physical training, weapon training, games, etc.
thence on. The officer also planned to keep RBM among
the persons of his trade, specially in the command post which controlled the
firing of the guns, where from the officer himself was expected to control the' fire in
case of breakout of war.
A small cadre (class) was organized for all ranks of the
sub-unit to apprise them of the organization of all arms and services in the
army, starting from the level of a sub-unit. They were explained the tactics in
the battlefields, the deployment patterns of different
arms, the pattern and modes of support by the Air Force, the capabilities of
weapons held by them, the comparative sizes of the countries, India versus Pakistan Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), wherefrom
about a crore refugees had entered India
because of the repression by Pakistan India India ,
the foremost leader of peace loving nations, had to prepare for war to ensure
return of these refugees to liberated Bangladesh
The participants were also told about the strength of
their Army and deployment in that area, of course, within the constraints of
security requirements. They were also told that none of them would remain alone
even during the war and that their sub-unit and the unit would always fight
together. They would always have their weapons and ammunitions with them, which
they were very good at firing. The process of medical care, the claim of
evacuation in case of serious injuries and the
enhanced benefits and compensation to families in
case of death of a soldier, then announced by the government, were also
communicated to them. The reliability of India Pakistan East Pakistan were explained to the
participants. The geographical location of East Pakistan
in relation to our country was also described. Everybody
was convinced of the great advantages and superiority we had vis-a-vis Pakistan
Thence on, RBM was a totally changed man. He was noticed
to be more active, intermingling with others at the slightest pretext and
opportunity, giving discourses about loyalty to the country and martyrdom. He
took keen interest in all the training activities, including the
digging of a number of contingency gun positions. He
volunteered to go with night patrols too, which operated to shoot
bursts of rounds with light machine guns in trees and groves close-by, whenever
the guns were deployed at a new place. He volunteered to venture out with the
line party which was earmarked to lay telephone lines over long distances
through sugarcane fields. He started watching the slaughtering of goats
in the unit. Above all, he started eating eggs, though he did
not touch meat.
This transformation in RBM was a welcome sight and
appreciated by all. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief on seeing RBM becoming a
brave "Fauzi" from a timid "Pandit". The RMO
was informed of this transformation. He too felt happy. His
contribution had been no less in diagnosing the cause of sickness correctly.
The cadre was conducted for the whole sub-unit with a view to eradicate any
apprehensions from the minds of others too, in case there were any, and to
educate all. The cadre proved to be a great success. It
motivated the whole lot, made them more confident and ready to
face the challenge bravely. This was subsequently apparent when the
hostilities started.
QUESTIONS:
1.
What was
the cause of fear in RBM?
2.
What were
the symptoms of fear displayed by RBM?
3.
How did
the RMO come to know of the war phobia of RBM?
4.
What
actions should be taken to avoid building up of fear among the troops?
Which of these steps were taken by the officer?
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
CASE I
EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
IN A GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION"
Bhumika Services Ltd., one of
the largest public sector companies of
India, was serving more than 31 million customers. Along with its
vast customer base, BSNL's
financial and asset bases too were vast and
strong. Changing regulations, converging markets, competition and ever
demanding customers had generated
challenges for BSNL. The Indore division of BSNL was the first in the country, which faced
competition in basic telecom services
from 1998. In spite of being a government department, Indore telephones had to face the competition, and relentless efforts were put in to
improve the services and provide worldclass telecom services to its customers. Among the various
services offered by Indore Telecom, 197 and 183
were two special services. 197 provided non-metered enquiry services to
obtain telephone numbers by simply giving the name of person/name
of organization/ name and designation of person, or by giving address. 183 on the other hand, was a nonmetered enquiry service that provided similar services for distant
stations. There were a large number of complaints related to these services. Complaints were either
directly forwarded to the district office by customers or raised during Telephone
Adalats or pointed out by correspondents during press conferences, which were
conducted quarterly. Complaints ranged from non-response, long waiting time to
rude responses.
S. Baheti
took charge as Area Manager (North) on July 25, 2001 In
the Indore Division. Immediately after taking charge, he realized that special services like 197 and 183 required
urgent attention as they were directly affecting the image of
the organization amongst customers. Since most of the complaints during Telephone Adalats and press conferences
were related to these services, Baheti wanted to
reach the root cause of the problem, to solve
it forever. In this process, he
looked at the background of the employees involved in
the special services and found that most of the employees were office bearers
of various unions that were active in the organization. The problem was more
complicated than it seemed to during
interactions, the employees indicated that they were not to be blamed for poor
services since they were facing a number of problems in providing services and
senior officials were not paying enough attention to alleviate their problems.
Defective handsets, non-operating telephone lines, disturbance in lines, jacks
not making proper connections, fans and air conditioners not working properly
and non availability of typewriter/computer terminals were some of the problems
brought to the notice of Baheti by operators.
Further investigation revealed that in addition to these technical problems, there were some
Human Resource Management problems as well, such as frequent short leave, extended
breaks, uninformed leave and indifferent attitude of employees towards
customers. Baheti identified that despite technical problems, some operators
were sincere towards their viork and tried their best to provide better services. To
improve these services, Baheti decided to use multipronged strategies. Most of
the technical problems were solved immediately, other problems that could not
be solved at his level were forwarded to higher authorities and pursued
rigorously. As the technical problems were taken care of, efficiency of sincere
employees went up. Moreover, Baheti also
began regular interaction with the operators, appreciating their good work, listening to
their problems and explaining them the;-i. importance of
their jobs. The employees were made aware of the facts that B5NL did not enjoy a sole monopolistic
position any more and had to compete with private players. So the laidback attitude towards
customer complaints was not only detrimental to the image of the organization, but also could lead to a reduced
market share.
After gaining the confidence of operators, the next step was to motivate
them. Towards this end, Baheti started announcing the best operator of the
month and recognition was given to the operator by displaying his name on the board
of honor. The criteria for award were minimum 200 calls attended per day and 20 days' attendance. In addition, based on
last six months performance, three best performers were identified. Appreciation letters from
Area Manager and General Manager were conferred upon these operators in a
public function and prizes of their own choice were given to them. These
efforts had a desired result and the performance of all the operators showed a
marked improvement. The number of calls attended by some operators increased
from 200 to 700 calls per day. Further, quick and polite response had reduced customer
complaints. While reviewing the situation, Baheti was quite contended to see a remarkable change in the
behavior of operators just four months. He wondered whether this change was a permanent phenomenon or he
would have to strategize further.
QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the
long-term relevance of motivational techniques used by Baheti in the light of
prevailing environment in the organization.
2. Had you been
Baheti, what other techniques you would have used to improve the special
services provided by the organization?
MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Case No 1 :- MARKETING
SPOTLIGHT- NIKE
Nike hit the ground running
in 1962. Originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports, the company focused on
providing high-quality running shoes designed especially for athletes by
athletes. Founder Philip Knight believer that high-tech shoes for runners could
be manufactured at competitive prices if imported from abroad. The company’s
commitment to designing innovative footwear for serious athletes helped it
build a cult following among American consumers. By 1980, Nike had become the
number-one athletic shoe company in the United States
From the start, Nike’s marketing campaigns featured winning
athletes as spokespeople. The company signed on its first spokesperson, runner
Steve Prefontaine, in 1973. Prefontaine’s irreverent attitude matched Nike’s
spirit. Marketing campaigns featuring winning athletes made sense. Nike saw a
`pyramid of influence’’ – it saw that product and brand choices are influenced
by the preferences and behavior of a small percentage of top athletes. Using
professional athletes in its advertising campaigns was both efficient and
effective for Nike.
In 1985, Nike signed up then-rookie guard Michael Jordan as
a spokesperson. Jordan Jordan
In 1988, Nike aired its first ads in the ``Just Do It’’ ad
campaign. The $20 million month-long blitz-subtly encouraging Americans to
participate more actively in sports-featured 12 TV spots in all. The campaign
challenged a generation of athletic enthusiasts to chase their goals; it was a
natural manifestation of Nike’s attitude of self-empowerment through sports.
The campaign featured celebrities and noncelebrities. One noncelebrity and
featured Walt Stack, an 80-year-old long-distance nunnery, running across the Golden Gate bridge as part of his morning routine. The
``Just Do It’’ trailer appeared on the screen as the shirtless Stack ran on a
chilly morning. Talking to the camera as it zoomed in, and while still running.
Stack remarked, ``People ask me how I keep my teeth from chattering when it’s
cold.’’ Pausing, Stack matter-of-factly replied, ‘’I leave them in my locker.’’
As Nike began expanding overseas to Europe ,
it found that its American style ads were seen as too aggressive. The brand
image was perceived as too fashion-oriented. Nike realized that it had to
``authenticate’’ its brand in Europe the way
it had in America U.S.
Today, Nike dominates the athletic footwear market. Nine of
the 10 top-selling basketball shoes, for example, are Nikes. Nike introduces
hundreds of shoes each year for 30 sports – averaging one new shoe style every
day of the year. Swooshes abound on everything from wristwatches to golf clubs
to swimming caps.
Discussion
Questions
1. What have been the key success factors for Nike?
2. Where is Nike vulnerable? What should it watch out for?
3. What
recommendations would you make to senior marketing executives going forward?
What should they be sure to do with its marketing?
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
CASE
I
A
DIAMOND PERSONALITY
Ask Suraj bhai about the
dot-com burst and he may grin at you as if to say, ``What burst?’’ Suraj bhai,
a 38-year-old entrepreneur, owns an Internet business that sells loose diamonds
to various buyers. Business is becoming for Suraj bhai. In 2004, he had sales
of INR 3,500 million. Needless to say, Suraj bhai is optimistic about his
business venture.
The
future wasn’t always to bright for Suraj bhai, however. In 1985, Suraj bhai
moved from his native town Suraj, to New
Delhi
In
1997, tired of working for someone else, Suraj bhai decided to open his own
jewelry store. However, business didn’t boom. `Some of my customers were
telling me they could find diamonds for less on the Interest. It blew my mind’’
Surajy bhai recognized an opportunity and began contacting well-known diamond
dealers to see if they would be interested in selling their gems online. Suraj
bhai recalls one conversation with a prominent dealer who told him, `You cannot
sell diamonds on the Internet. You will not survive.’’ Discouraged, Suraj bhai
then says that he made a mistake. ``I stopped working on it. If you have a
dream, you have to keep working harder at it.’’
A
year later, Suraj bhai did work harder at his dream and found a dealer who
agreed to provide him with some diamonds. Says Suray bhai, ``Once I had one. I
could approach others. Business started to build. The first 3 months I sold INR
20 million worth of diamonds right off the bat. And that was just me. I started
to add employees and eventually closed the jewelry store and got out of
retail.’’ Although Suraj bhai does have some diamonds in inventory, he
primarily acts as a connection point between buyers and suppliers, giving his
customers an extraordinary selection from which to choose.
Suraj
bhai is now a savvy entrepreneur, and his company, Abhisaz.com, went public in
October 2003.
Why
is Suraj bhai successful? Just ask two people who have known Suraj bhai over
the years. Yogesh bhai, a realtor who helped build Suraj bhai building, says,
``Suraj bhai is a very ambitious young man. I am not surprised at all how
successful he is. He is an entrepreneur in the truest sense of the world.’’ One
of Suraj bhai former real-estate instructors, Arun Jain, concurs. `I am not
surprised at all at his success,’’ says Arun. ``Suraj bhai has always been an
extremely motivated individual with a lot of resources. He has a wonderful
personality and pays close attention to detail. He also has an ability to stick
to things. You could tell from the beginning that he was going to persevere,
and I am proud of him.’’
Suraj
bhai is keeping his success in perspective, but he also realizes his business’
potential: ``I take a very small salary, and our overhead in INR 25 million a
year. I am not in debt, and the business is breaking ever. I care about the
company. I want to keep everything even until we take off, and then it may be
another ball game.’’
Questions:
1.
What factors do you think attributed to Suraj bhai’s success? Was he merely
``in the right place at the right time’’, or are there characteristics about
him that contribute to his success?
2.
How do you believe Suraj bhai would score on the Big Five dimensions of
personality (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional
stability, openness to experience)? Which ones would he score high on? Which
ones might he score low on?
3.
Do you believe that Suraj bhai is high or low on core self-evaluations? On what
information did you base your decision?
4.
What information about Suraj bhai suggests that he has a proactive personality?
SALES MANAGEMENT
Case 1 :-
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut has a sense of occasion, of being
there at the right time. Be it a heart shaped pizza on Valentine’s Day or a
special promotion during the Cricket
World Cup, Pizza Hut is on the ball – with eye catching promotions. In the
summer of 2000 in New Delhi, Pizza Hut launched its innovation Pizza Pooch menu
as well as a Birthday Party package exclusively for kids in the 6 – 10 years
age group. Senior marketing manager, Tricon Restaurants International said,
“There is a specific reason to cater to this segment. Though, at this age
chidren are under their parents’ guidance, they perceive themselves to be
teenagers and have the ability to choose or demand a particular brand of their
own choice.”
The $ 20 billion Tricon Restaurants
that owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has nearly
29,000 outlets globally. The largest number of Pizza Hut outlets is in Paris,
followed by Moscow and Hong Kong. Pizza Hut started operations in India nearly
seven years ago with just a single outlet. It has realised the cultural differences
in India and importance of religion in the consumption pattern of certain
sub-cultures. Today it has spread in several cities and it also has a 100 per
cent vegetarian restaurant in Ahmedabad.
Innovation promotion activities and a
popular logo have helped Pizza Hut expanding. The senior marketing manager
said, “Our focus is not just on offering a great pizza but also on providing
excitement and good customer service. “The manager further emphasized on the
customer focused operations and intensive research done to find customer needs
and satisfaction. Besides, Pizza Hut conducted in-house research on
psychographics on Indian consumer that led to the use of cartoon characters in
campaigns. The Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) also carries out regular
surprise checks at different outlets to monitor the quality of service.
Moreover, a regular test, CHAMPS (Cleanliness, Hospitality, Accuracy of order,
Maintenance, Product quality and Speed of service) is conducted in-house.
The company says that its Pizza Pooch
birthday package is full of fun and excitement. What is unique in the package
is the nominal price of Rs. 125 per child that offers much more than only
goodies in the main menu. The birthday party includes a well-decorated area
within the Pizza Hut outlet with several gifts for the children. Moreover, the
party is conducted by a trained host with lots of games, prizes and a special
gift for the birthday child. Pizza Hut, better known as a family restaurant,
takes the onus of relieving parents of the cumbersome job of clearing up the
mess after the kiddies have enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
The Pizza Pooch menu, on the other
hand, includes a wholesome delicious meal and gift for the child. The menu has
been intricately designed with pictorial games. A free set of crayons is
provided to keep the children occupied while their parents dine. The campaigns
created by HTA are eye-catching with cartoon characters on the mailers,
hoarding and print advertisements where the cartoon characters are aimed at matching
varying moods of kids. The birthday party concept is not entirely original –
local fast food major Nirula’s has been doing it for years as does KFC.
Questions
1.
Do you think Pizza Hut
promotion is successful? Give your reasons.
2.
Suggest one alternative
promotion to attract girls to Pizza Hut. Why do you think this would be
successful?
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